20 years later...

[monel]

I remember those days, aye. That would be ?70 in today's money, I think. Consoles seemed to me a real aspirational purchase. What seemed like (in the days before MAME!) arcade perfect conversions in your own home, astonishing. That's probably why I'm into 16-bit retro now, and have been since the PlayStation/N64/other era. All those games I craved after as a child reading magazines, or watching being played in the local Dixons, I had neither the money or console to play. (My dad hated anything "Japanese", had to rely on my mother to get the Nintendo consoles I did get, and the games were birthday and festive presents only).

I understand completely. Looking back, I was a lucky sod to get what I did, to the point I sometimes feel a bit guilty at the stuff I wasted money on. The Neo Geo seemed insane price wise, I used to laugh at the prices. I was perhaps also lucky that some of my friends were absolutely hooked on console games so I could just swap games with them (and some of them sold on their older stuff in a manner simliar to how crackheads work). I was still miffed at the time that the games weren't quite arcade perfect, but compared to 8bit and 16bit home computers they were far closer. I know the PS1 and Saturn had some arguably perfect conversions, but it wasn't until the Dreamcast that I felt I had actual arcade quality stuff at home.

[dataDave]

The PS1 port was far from shoddy but I am talking about the game in general. I hated the cheap sounding music and the lack of chain combos as standard. The custom combo thing was boring and the whole game felt a step down in most areas.

I'm literally shocked to hear that. No chain combos? Cheap music? Custom combos being a step down? Are we talking about the right game?

[nakamura]

Indeed we are. The music didn't touch the original game, it was streamed from the CD and sounded almost live, it was awesome.
The chain combo system was removed in Alpha 2 and replace with custom combos. I found the custom combo became very boring very fast as it wasted the super gauge. In Alpha 1 you could launch into a 5-6-7 hit combo then link it to a super, it was awesome.

Alpha 3 had the chain system returning but you had to buy it from the world tour mode.

[dataDave]

The chain combo system was removed in Alpha 2 and replace with custom combos. I found the custom combo became very boring very fast as it wasted the super gauge. In Alpha 1 you could launch into a 5-6-7 hit combo then link it to a super, it was awesome.

?

Do you mean something different by chain combos?

Regarding the music:

The PlayStation port features an arranged soundtrack (in the form of XA-Audio), while the Saturn version uses an arranged soundtrack in a streaming ADPCM format (which looped properly like in the arcade version).

Maybe that has something to do with it. I actually prefer the Saturn audio over that used on the CPS2 board.

[nakamura]

Well I stand well and truly corrected, the system is indeed there. Was the timing changed dramatically or the ps1 version indeed bodied?
I did play it on Saturn but a few years later when I already didn't like it.

I do the Zero 2 Dash on the ps1 which does seem an improved port, is it worth going back to now?

[Dogg Thang]

Hmmm... my memory is fuzzy but I think you're right, Nakamura. When Alpha 1 came out, I think it had some really basic chain combos built in like, LK, MK, HK, that would hit in a row. They were much more preprogrammed in than the SF2 and SFA2 combos, more like a code than just getting moves to string together. These were removed for SFA2, with the exception of Guy who I think had one as part of his move list.

As I say, my memory is fuzzy but there was something like that.

[Sam The Man]

Got Alpha 2 (Sat) for xmas 1996 and loved every minute playing it. I preferred it to the original due to the larger amount of characters, backgrounds, improved Alpha counters (if i remember correctly there was only 1 counter for each character in the 1st) and a few other things like the artwork and more modes like the training and survival modes. Although i quite liked the music i agree with Nakamura that it didn't quite sound as sharp.

Personally i thought Alpha 3 (Sat) blew them both away and could be the best 2d fighter ever.